Nick Kyrgios has fallen short in his battle against Rafael Nadal in their Indian Wells quarter final, with the scoreline reading 7-6 (6-0), 5-7, 6-4.
Kyrgios had been gunning to end Nadal's incredible 18-0 start to the tennis season, but lost his cool at several points of the match, swearing at the chair umpire and getting involved in a verbal stoush with a man sitting alongside Hollywood star Ben Stiller.
"Why are you speaking?" he said to the man seated three down from Stiller, before pointing at the comedian.
"Do I tell him how to act? No."
After being broken in the third set, Kyrgios hit out at chair umpire Carlos Bernardes for not managing the crowd.
"How long are you going to let that s**t go on for? How long? How long? How long, bro? How long?" Kyrgios yelled.
"If you did something about it before, maybe it wouldn't have happened.
"It happens again and again — and look at the f***ing score! Look at the score!
"It's your job to control that, no one else's."
Kyrgios was then booed from the court, after the Australian smashed his racquet directly following his post-match handshake with Nadal, with the piece of equipment reportedly nearly hitting a ball kid.
"Nadal wins, Kyrgios spikes racquet that goes flying and nearly hits a ball kid. Crowd boos as he exits," tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg tweeted.
"Tough end to a pretty great match."
The tense third-set exchange with the crowd came before Kyrgios dropped his serve in the seventh game, allowing Nadal to stream to victory, ending a mighty tussle.
Kyrgios — the world No.132 and needing a wildcard to enter the tournament — made a mockery of his lowly ranking from early on, breaking Nadal first and lengthening his run to 30 straight service holds.
The 26-year-old fumed as he missed his chance to serve out the first set, smashing two racquets, before handing the second to a child in the crowd.
Kyrgios snapped back at an abusive crowd member as he waited for quiet on his serve, drawing a point penalty.
"When you do that I need to penalise you because it's too loud," umpire Bernardes told Kyrgios, who shook his head as he replied "unbelievable".
The circus atmosphere required another intervention from Bernardes, who leaned out of his chair to address one man, saying: "There are 10,000 people who want to watch tennis here and you're the only one who wants to scream like crazy. Please."
On the court, Kyrgios gathered his composure, closing out service games and disguised drop shots as he led 6-5.
He also levelled the match with another piece of magic, slipping on his way to reach a drop shot before scrambling an overhead to win the second set.
The momentum was Kyrgios' in the third, with Nadal holding serve with uncharacteristic sloppiness in the opening games.
That all changed as the Australian's head appeared turned by the crowd during the final games.
Nadal's victory was his 19th in succession this year, a run that has brought ATP titles in Melbourne and Acapulco and a record-breaking 21st slam at the Australian Open.
He marches on at Indian Wells, where he can improve to be world No.3 with a title, and will play either Carlos Alcaraz or reigning champion Cameron Norrie in the semi-finals.
While Kyrgios fell short against Nadal, he will leap in the rankings after a productive tournament, projected to be world No.101 by week's end.
